June 30, 2010

A new study by US scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that the amount of fresh water cycling through the Arctic is increasing due to global warming. This has raised the concern that the large volumes of ice melt from Greenland and other sources could dilute the normally salty Arctic waters to the point that the circulation of the North Atlantic, also known as the thermohaline circulation, could be slowed or even halted, with disastrous consequences for the global climate.

Explaining this immense potential tipping point in a telephone interview with Supreme Master Television was Professor Anders Levermann from Potsdam University, a senior researcher at the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research in Germany and the lead author of the Sea Level Change chapter for the coming 5th report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Professor Anders Levermann – Senior researcher, Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, Germany (M): If you put additional fresh water into the North Atlantic by melting Greenland or by having more discharge from Siberian rivers, then you can freshen the North Atlantic so strongly that there won’t be any sinking of water anymore, and that would disrupt this thermohaline circulation, and could make it stop. Because there’s so much heat transport associated with this thermohaline circulation, it’s going to disturb the entire climate system.

VOICE: The thermohaline circulation acts as the “conveyor belt” bringing heat from the lower to higher parts of the northern hemisphere. A collapse of this vital system could decrease North Atlantic temperatures by up to 8 degrees Celsius, severely affecting agriculture in Europe. Sea level rise and disrupted ecosystems and rainfall patterns are the other consequences that could hugely impact human life.

Professor Anders Levermann (M): The estimates are such that this kind of sea level rise that we would get from the collapse of the thermohaline circulation would be 10 times, 20 times quicker than what we see at the moment. The sea level would, more or less, instantaneously rise in the North Atlantic by up to a meter. Then, you disrupt the heat uptake of the ocean, which would further increase global warming.

Then the rain belt in the tropics would shift by a few hundreds kilometers. If you look where people live in West Africa, and also in the Amazon region, then this is where the rainfall is, and that would change enough to disturb these communities.

VOICE: We thank Professor Levermann and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research colleagues as well as the University of Massachusetts Amherst scientists for alerting us to this potential catastrophe of the ocean as it affects the ecosphere. May we act swiftly to avert such disastrously large-scale changes and protect lives. During a September 2009 videoconference in Peru, as on many previous occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai urged for direct action that effectively addresses such complex climate problems at their root.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: We are not ready for the changes that are coming. We are not ready at all. We are not prepared enough. Some of the changes are even anticipated to be unexpected, because there are many complicated interacting factors. The wisest action would be to fix the situation we have now and prevent further damage, then we won’t even have to worry about the future.

The smartest way would be to stop the worsening of global warming by being vegan. It sounds very simple but it is the best solution, the most effective and the effect of it will be felt almost immediately. So please, before the situation gets any more out of hand - let’s choose the vegan diet.

Thanks to recent donations from nations and organizations such as Ireland and the European Union， the United Nations World Food Program has been able to distribute food to some 200,000 people who have been hard hit by drought in the last four years.

However， the agency has noted that 110,000 people are still in need of emergency aid. Weather conditions combined with inefficient water use has resulted in diminished wheat output in some areas， while others have been turned into wastelands. Although a government wheat subsidy program has increased output somewhat， tens of thousands of wells dug illegally by people desperate for the resource have damaged the water table as the country， once a wheat exporter， has had to import the grain for the past three years.

Recent estimates state that up to a million people have fled to such cities as the capital Damascus， seeking other livelihoods to support their families. The World Food Program has alerted that further distribution of such staples as rice， oil， flour， chickpeas and salt are pending additional funding.

With our appreciation and Heaven’s blessings for the concerned endeavors of the European Commission， Ireland and the United Nations World Food Program， we pray for the welfare of those in Eastern Syria， as well as all other areas hit by climate-related weather catastrophes and food shortages. May the abundance of a balanced ecosphere soon grace every population as we step quickly in unison to adopt sustainable lifestyles that support all life on Earth.

During an October 2009 videoconference in Germany， Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded as on previous occasions of the need to be responsible stewards of our planet， offering a solution to safeguarding the world’s precious resources.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: With current droughts and water shortages already affecting millions and only expected to get worse， worse and worse.

But even though our predicament is very grave， we do still have time if we act now. And the solution is still very simple. It’s the vegan diet – no animal products.

Scientists have found that each person eating a meat and dairy based diet uses around 4,500 gallons of water per day，compared to 300 gallons per day for a vegan diet. This also means that 1 pound of animal protein requires 100 times more water to produce than 1 pound of grain protein. Over the course of a year， the vegan diet saves approximately 1.5 million gallons of water per person.

This is the key. If everyone switches to this beneficial lifestyle， our planet will be cooled in no time，scientifically speaking and my promise.

June 28, 2010

As government climate efforts continue to focus on reducing carbon dioxide as a major greenhouse gas, a growing number of scientists and leaders have begun calling attention to other climate forcing agents whose warming effects are many times shorter-lived than CO2.

Along with methane, a potent greenhouse gas primarily generated by the livestock industry whose effects can dissipate in as few as ten years, other agents have similarly have intense warming influences that could quickly be halted. Dr. Andreas Stohl from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research explains.

Andreas Stohl (M): The short-lived climate forcers are anything that has a shorter lifetime than say, 10, 15 years, starting at methane, which has a lifetime of about 10 years. Which means that, if you reduce the emissions of these substances, then the concentrations in the atmosphere would almost immediately go down. And that means that climate impacts would also be reduced almost immediately, which we don’t get for the CO2.

VOICE: One of the aerosols that acts as a short-lived climate forcer is black carbon, or soot. Soot is released through the incomplete combustion of burning substances such as biofuels, fields, or forests.

The black air-borne particles absorb solar radiation both while in the atmosphere and after being deposited on snow or ice, resulting in regional warming.

Andreas Stohl (M): It darkens the snow surface and then the snow starts absorbing more solar radiation, and that means that the snow is probably melting away quicker in the spring. And if it’s a glacier, then it could also cause additional melting.

VOICE: We thank Dr. Stohl and all scientists and governments for your consideration of this significant warming source. Let us join in acting now to address such short-lived agents as black carbon and methane to bring swift and necessary planetary cooling. Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently urged for the most effective actions in halting climate change, as during an interview published in the December 16, 2009 edition of The Irish Dog Journal.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The powerful methane is actually a greater cause of the warming than previously estimated. The good news is that methane dissipates from the atmosphere in approximately 12 years, whereas it takes carbon dioxide thousands of years to disappear.

So, if we want to make a rapid, effective difference now, we must stop the methane generation at its largest, original source: that is, the livestock industry. The livestock sector is the top driving force behind rainforest destruction. Forest burning for making pasture is also a major source of black carbon, which is soot, particles capable of trapping 2,000 times more heat than CO2.

The super hot particles end up on the world’s ice caps and accelerate their melting. I pray that our world’s leaders will take swift actions to ban the destructive meat production and, instead, use subsidies for organic vegan farming which helps absorb emissions. Then, we can have an immediate effect on climate change and have more time to develop and perfect our green technology to address CO2.

The planet’s northern ice cap contains remarkable features, including a vast chasm known as the Chasma Boreale, which is larger than the Earth’s Grand Canyon, and a series of spiral troughs inscribed in the ice.

The mystery of their origin was unexplained for nearly 40 years, until a recent study conducted by geophysicists Dr. Jack Holt and graduate student Isaac Smith of the University of Texas, USA. Using radar data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that probed the subsurface topography of the ice cap, they observed the internal layers of the large ice sheets to gain insight into historical changes of the Martian climate and how it continues to shape the planet.

Their findings indicate that the Chasma Boreale evolved through eons of wind erosion, while the spiral phenomenon is also wind-related and reflects the Coriolis force, a phenomenon also present on Earth caused by the planet's spinning in space. Meanwhile, a related study found that an immense ocean around the planet’s north pole likely covered a third of Mars’ surface some 3.5 billion years ago.

Dr. Gaetano Di Achille and Professor Brian Hynek of the University of Colorado, USA examined extensive images and found 52 river-delta deposits scattered across the planet. More than half occurred at about the same elevation, appearing to mark the boundary of what was once an enormous sea.

These findings also suggest that Mars may have had an Earth-like hydrological cycle of evaporation and rainfall. Dr. Di Achille said, “On Earth, deltas and lakes are excellent collectors and preservers of signs of past life. If life ever arose on Mars, deltas may be the key to unlocking Mars' biological past.”

Many thanks, international scientists, for your detailed work in sharing such fascinating insights on the history of Mars. May these intriguing findings about our planetary neighbor help us be better stewards of our precious Earth. During a January 2009 videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded that our increased knowledge on Mars is an avenue for our better protection of the delicate balance of our own ecosphere.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: They have discovered that Mars is all barren and uninhabitable, but they also discovered that, long ago, there was water there. Water means life supporting. What has happened to all these bodies of water? That is a very, very important question for us. So from Mars, we can learn to prevent such disaster, that it might not ever happen to our planet.

Don’t forget that we have a very beautiful home here for us and for our children.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So we have to protect this beautiful place we call Earth, because this is the home of not just us, but many other species; and the environment, beautiful flora and fauna.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: All we do is just be vegan. Nothing else is really important anymore. Just being vegan, you can save the planet overnight, just like that!

Calling for members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to uphold a current ban on whaling, three different petitions have been presented to IWC members convening this week. The first contains 1 million citizen signatures, while the second has 200,000. The third has been signed by over 200 scientists from 30 different countries to call for the existing 1986 ban on whaling to remain in place for the continued survival of cetaceans.

The 88 member states of the IWC are currently meeting in Morocco, where they are considering a suspension of the ban. Supreme Master Television spoke with US-based Animal Welfare Institute Wildlife Research Associate Serda Ozbenian about the situation of the hunted whales.

Serda Ozbenian - Wildlife Research Associate, Animal Welfare Institute (F): Can whales survive commercial fishing? No, they can’t. Whales are a very long lived species. No whale populations have rebounded from the intensive fishing of the whaling era. There’s no evidence to show that there is such a thing as sustainable whaling.

Their biology is just not built for it. They have very long gestation periods. They are very social animals, therefore they raise their young, it takes them a very long time to mature and reach breeding age. So, absolutely not.

VOICE: According to video documentation, whales also die a slow and painful death, with one instance filmed over two hours where harpoons with explosives were used. Ms. Ozbenian points out the further senselessness of whaling in that the demand for the meat today is extremely low, causing stockpiles to build.

Serda Ozbenian (F): Before the ban was put into place, a lot of whale populations were almost nearing extinction. The ban has really been a saving grace for whale species and it should be upheld, and whaling needs to be stopped, especially in this day and age. There’s barely any demand for the meat and it’s really pointless and extremely cruel.

VOICE: We are grateful and applaud the efforts of Ms. Ozbenian, Animal Welfare Institute, international scientists and all concerned petition signatories, for your advocacy to preserve the whales. Our prayers for the protection and respect of these beautiful marine creations. Supreme Master Ching Hai was moved to tears by all these caring actions and involvements throughout the world, and she conveyed her wholehearted wish that the cruelty of whaling be stopped immediately.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Throughout the years, Supreme Master Ching Hai has continually appealed for mercy toward such innocent beings, as in an October 2009 videoconference in Germany.

If they go on the massacring fishing boat or the bloody whaling boat to witness it for themselves, I wonder how anybody could ever do this for a living? But, of course, they have been cheated into doing that. We have all been cheated into doing the things that we should have never done, should have never even imagined.

Because our hearts are originally full of compassion and love, but we just ignore our feeling. If you ever wondered if hell exists, just go into those massacre houses or the boats that kill the whales and go to the seal-massacring areas.

Go there to find hell, then you’ll believe that hell will exist. Our original God Nature is compassion and love. I repeat again and again and again: You are not that. You are compassion, you are love incarnate. Please return to it.

June 25, 2010

Acting as natural air conditioners for the environment, plants and trees normally release water vapor through their tiny leaf pores in a process called evapo-transpiration. However, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cause the pores to shrink. This reduces their absorption of CO2 as well as their cooling ability.

A recent study from the Carnegie Institution for Science in the USA has shown that such decreased evaporative capacity actually amplifies surrounding temperatures, increasing the warming effect of the CO2 itself. Study co-authors Drs. Long Cao and Ken Caldeira found that when the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was doubled, the diminished evapo-transpiration of plants accounted for 16% of land surface warming, averaged over the entire globe.

In regions such as parts of North America and eastern Asia, the warming effect could exceed 25% of the total caused by CO2 alone. Dr. Caldeira stated, “…The kind of vegetation that's on the surface of our planet and what that vegetation is doing is very important in determining our climate. We need to take great care in considering what kind of changes we make to forests and other ecosystems, because they are likely to have important climate consequences.”

Drs. Long Cao, Ken Caldeira and Carnegie Institute associates, we appreciate your work that reveals how the beneficial vegetation can be so adversely affected by human-caused global warming.

Let us swiftly act in unison to adopt sustainable living practices that protect the forests and our Earthly abode. Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently spoken of our need to value the irreplaceable components of our planet’s ecosystems, including the flora, as during this 2001 lecture in Florida, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Everything has something. Like trees. We die without trees. The water will be less because there are no trees to attract water and to keep water when it is there.

So everything on this planet, including us, is interrelated and help each other to make our lives here comfortable and livable, comfortably. But if we don't know that, we are killing ourselves. Every time we kill a tree, or kill an animal, we are killing a little part of ourselves.

June 24, 2010

A team of 18 scientists from five countries determined that the current rate of record-setting ice retreat is the most drastic to occur in at least 5,000 years. The researchers’ findings, which are being published in the peer-reviewed journal Quaternary Science Reviews, examined data from hundreds of studies to obtain a large picture of millions of years of Arctic history. They concluded that the Arctic ice conditions of the past 30 years were unmatched and consistent with the rapidly warming climate.

Dr. Leonid Polyak, a polar researchers and lead author of the study, stated that the normally predictable ice fluctuations related to the Earth’s orbit indicate that there should be more, rather than less ice.

Therefore, the current ice loss is not just a low point in the natural variable cycle of shrinking and growing ice. Dr. David Barber, Canada’s Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba and his own team of researchers has also been finding evidence of unprecedented sea ice decline.

David Barber (M): We’re just coming into the summer conditions in 2010, and we’re finding that we’re probably going to lose quite a bit of ice through the summer. And so we’re expecting it to be another year that’s fairly similar to 2007, which was the last record of the minimum extent of sea ice in the northern hemisphere.

VOICE: Navigating through the Arctic sea ice, Dr. Barber and his team found that the ships were able to go through the normally thick multi-year ice easily, as it had degraded to only a thin layer of first-year ice.

David Barber (M): It used to be that about 80 to 85% of the Arctic basin was covered with that kind of ice. We’re now down to about 18% of the Arctic basin being covered by that kind of ice.

And what happens is as we lose that ice, it’s replaced in the fall with this first-year ice which is much thinner. It has a maximum thickness of about 2 meters. It’s much more, say, lean, and much warmer, so it’s much easier to break and it’s much more susceptible to winds and wave action.

VOICE: We appreciate your efforts, Drs. Barber and Polyak and colleagues, in asserting the alarming extent of these damaging ice effects. May your research motivate us all to act quickly toward steps to stabilize the climate in the Arctic and throughout our planetary home.

In a September 2009 videoconference in South Korea, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of the Arctic’s already urgent situation and how to stop its further decline.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: As you saw for yourself how quickly the North Pole is melting - it’s at least twice as fast as the rest of the globe. As I’m sure you already knew, they call the Arctic ice the refrigerator of the planet. The world’s leading climate scientists told us that being vegetarian - meaning no animal products - is the single most effective thing an individual can do to stop global warming.

From my own insight, I know that if the world’s people become vegan, one of the results is that the ice in the Arctic will be restored, and quickly, along with the repairing of nature in every corner of the planet.

Isn’t that wonderful? This is the truth that I could promise you, but we all must act fast, like yesterday.

The US conservation group American Rivers has released its annual list of the nation’s 10 most endangered rivers, emphasizing the critical need for action to protect of rivers and their communities.

Ranked most imperiled is the Upper Delaware River, which, located between the northeastern states of Pennsylvania and New York, provides drinking water for 17 million people.

This and the ninth-listed Monongahela River sit atop an area called the Marcellus Shale, which is being subjected to gas drilling, a process that involves injecting chemicals into the ground, thereby creating untreatable toxic wastewater.

Meanwhile in California state, the second most endangered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is lacking a flood infrastructure and thus is unable to manage rising sea levels set off by climate change.

The Gauley River in West Virginia, the third most endangered, is being blocked and polluted with coal mining debris, while the flourishing of other rivers is threatened by proposed projects such as new dam construction in North Carolina’s Little River and the Teton River in Idaho, as well as suction dredging, a gold mining technique that would kill fish eggs and larvae while altering the entire ecosystem of Oregon's Chetco River.

Our gratefulness, American Rivers, for your commitment to safeguarding the rivers and the lives that depend on them. Blessed be all such efforts to preserve the vibrant streams that sustain the Earth’s rich diversity of life and beauty.

The need for more conscious stewardship of our fragile Earth has frequently been mentioned by Supreme Master Ching Hai, who addressed the imperiled aquatic ecosystems during a July 2008 videoconference in Formosa.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You see, these things are very sad. It happens a lot and we still did not learn to be responsible and to feel for the environment and the helpless animals, which are our friends and helpers. They suffer a lot, they die, or they completely disappear because of our careless management of the world. We have dumped so much chemicals and poisonous stuff into rivers and oceans.

Our enduring, giving rivers and oceans have to take in daily so much. Without water, what would we do? What would all the species on the planet do?

This is another example of how we exploit the Earth and vital resources with very little consideration for the consequences. But we still can correct that. If we all become vegetarians, then we will use very little fuel as vegetable food can be grown everywhere easily and no need for long distance transportation and no need so much water to produce.

We have to stop the harmful effect of meat consumption, then we will see a happy, sufficient and satisfied world manifest in front of our eyes in a matter of weeks.

June 23, 2010

According to a new study published in Science magazine, the Earth’s seas are fast on their way to becoming over-saturated with human-caused greenhouse gases. The study highlighted a spectrum of factors whose impact has grown especially in the past decade -- rapid warming, changing current patterns, and spreading dead zones – all of which are causing marine ecosystems to decline.

Lead author Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at Australia’s University of Queensland, compared the oceans’ current absorption of excessive quantities of atmospheric CO2 to human lungs being filled with cigarette smoke, which has made the water increasingly toxic and acidic. A recently premiered documentary from the Netherlands, titled "Sea the Truth," also examines the oceans’ plight, with experts like Dutch marine biologist Marianne van Mierlo observing the range of alarming phenomena.

Marianne van Mierlo – Marine Biologist, Nicholas Piersen Foundation, The Netherlands (F): The acidification of the ocean is because of the extensive carbon dioxide production of the humans.

It gets into the oceans, and there, because the oceans get acid from it, the calcification rates of all organisms that produce calcite skeletons, that really decreases. They can’t make their shells anymore and it’s really dangerous for, for example, corals, shellfish, also phytoplankton, zooplankton.

VOICE: As the new research confirmed, marine ecosystems are being driven to a tipping point, with danger signs already observed in the form of smaller and fewer fish as well as more frequent diseases in underwater organisms. According to many ocean scientists, including Ms. van Mierlo and others featured in "Sea the Truth," one important solution apart from reducing CO2 emissions is halting fish consumption.

These ocean inhabitants contribute to the balance of marine environments and thus are needed for their preservation.

Marianne van Mierlo (F): Fish excrete calcium carbonate lumps, which are buffering the ocean acidification, which is really important. So also it’s important to stop overfishing.

Totally, we should stop eating fish now, and it is so important to keep our oceans healthy, and we’ve already gone way too far in exploiting them.

VOICE: Our thanks Ms. van Mierlo, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg and associates for providing the facts and warnings from the seas. May we join hands in rescuing and restoring the oceans by adopting a meat- and fish-free diet that saves all lives.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently spoken of how our lifestyles can affect the marine ecosystems, as in an interview published in the September 2009 edition of the British Parliament's The House Magazine.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: No matter how small, each species has a role to help balance our ecosystem, scientifically proven. And yet, consumption of both fish and animal flesh continue and are wreaking havoc on biodiversity around the globe. In the oceans and fresh waterways, so many species of fish have already been lost, with complete aquatic environments such as coral reefs being decimated by such practices as trawling and fishing with explosives.

The answer to all of this is quite clear. Stop the meat consumption. Stop it yesterday.

Organizations such as the Animal Welfare Institute, Humane Society International, and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have come together to support the longstanding and proven success of a ban on whaling that was originally approved by the International Whaling Committee (IWC) in 1984.

With the Committee meeting next week in Morocco to consider lifting this moratorium, these animal welfare groups have highlighted the importance of upholding the ban to protect the long-term survival of whales.

Wendy Elliott, Species Manager for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International also stated that the primary historical threat to whales has been whaling.

IWC Preview Press call 06-16-10 Wendy Elliott, Species Manager, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International (f): Most of the great whales that are listed as threatened by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) are threatened specifically because of previous whaling activities.

They were driven to such low levels by previous whaling that they haven’t been able to recover. The second element I wanted to talk about was science in the deal.

It was essentially a lack of taking into account the science that led previous whaling activities to drive most species to near extinctions. This is exactly what we need to avoid happening again.

VOICE: To further clarify the benefits of the whaling ban, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has published online statistics documenting its success and the estimated hundreds of thousands of lives that have been saved.

Based on these facts, Humane Society International Vice President Kitty Block, commented, “What we should be concentrating on is not lifting the successful ban that we currently have, but working harder on ways to … stop this cruel and unnecessary practice once and for all.”

We pray for wise leadership in the International Whaling Committee meeting to aid in sustaining the fragile balance of the beautiful ocean and her inhabitants.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has long encouraged humanity toward a deeper understanding and appreciation of the gifts shared by our animal co-inhabitants, as in an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: The animals are truly noble, gentle beings, selfless, and in harmony with one another, the environment, and with Heaven. Their role has always been since time immemorial to bring love and blessing to the world with their pure presence. If we would only stop harming and torturing them and killing them, and give them a chance to fulfill their God-given mission, then our planet will be saved and will be kept in splendor.

They wait on the sidelines in full support of humans, for the day they can be our friends again, truly, not our victims. On that day of peacemaking between humans and animals, our eyes may begin to be opened to our co-inhabitants’ true magnificent roles on Earth.

As the Arctic region is known to be increasing in temperature at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, differences in air pressure at the North Pole are disrupting planetary air currents, causing wind pattern changes.

According to Dr. James Overland of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, these shifting winds caused the exceptionally cold and snowy winters of 2009-2010 as seen across large regions of the globe.

Dr. Overland presented his findings at the recent International Polar Year conference in Oslo, Norway.

Dr. James Overland – (M): You tend to think of a global warming signal being warming everywhere, but it’s more complex than that. Actually, the Arctic is warming and the heat that’s stored from the summer in the ocean is giving back to the atmosphere in the fall, and it forms a dome of high pressure and warm temperatures over the Arctic.

VOICE: Dr. Overland explained that the difference between the high and low air pressure systems in the north and further south effectively pulls the relatively frigid northern Arctic air down to the warmer mid-latitudes of Scandinavia, eastern North America and eastern Eurasia. This effect also stops the south-to-north movement of warmer air.

Dr. James Overland (M): So, with the warming, you have more winds coming out of the north, but they’re bringing relatively colder air from the north into the south. So that’s why you have the cold temperatures. And it’s also blocking a lot of the normal warm storms that occur further south and come into Europe.

And so we end up having a colder and snowier weather that occurred last December and last January [that] are linked to the large changes that we’re seeing in the Arctic now.

VOICE: As continued warming of the Arctic’s atmosphere and oceans brings further irreversible decline of Arctic sea ice and diminished cooling reflection of the sun’s heat, Dr. Overland warned that this destabilized Arctic climate system will lead to more extreme winter weather.

We thank Dr. Overland for helping us understand how global warming is linked to severe seasonal cold in parts of the Northern Hemisphere. May such findings prompt us to quickly adopt solutions that rebalance our treasured planetary home.

During an August 2009 videoconference in Thailand Supreme Master Ching Hai expressed her ever-present concern for humans’ vulnerability to these increasingly severe conditions as she urged for their effective countermeasure.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: What’s more, we have more reports of unending drought, freezing weather, storms These are truly almost always the consequences of humans’ violent actions. The number 1 action is meat eating.

So, we are grateful we have a few more days to help more of our fellow world citizens to change to the benevolent diet to save our planet. But, these days are still numbered. We can’t prolong forever. We can stop the disasters, make them go away for good, forever, make all the unfavorable situations, threatening weather to go away if all of us switch to the organic vegan diet.

June 22, 2010

A new study from German researchers at organizations such as the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has estimated global temperature increases based on the pledges of international governments to reduce emissions.

Despite calls by small island nations for a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature rise and even the Copenhagen Accord’s establishment of 2 degrees maximum, the study’s findings point to a devastating 3 degree increase in temperature.

Potsdam Institute’s Bill Hare stated, “The current pledges and loopholes give us a virtual certainty of exceeding 1.5 degrees, with global warming very likely exceeding 2 degrees and a more than 50-percent chance of exceeding 3 degrees by 2100.”

According to environmental journalist Mark Lynas, author of the book, “Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet,” a 3-degree temperature rise scenario includes super-hurricanes destroying large cities, vast areas of Africa and Australia rendered uninhabitable due to drought, massive carbon release from vegetation and soil and the loss of the entire Amazon rainforest in uncontrollable firestorms.

According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Earth has already heated up by 0.8 degrees Celsius since the start of industrialization, with accompanying sea level rise and accelerated loss of ice and permafrost.

Scientists forecast that even a 1 to 2-degree warming would cause calamities such as the submersion of low-lying coastlines, heatstroke fatalities across Europe, and the extinction of at least a third of all species.

We appreciate the contributions of Dr. Hare and Potsdam Institute colleagues, Mr. Lynas and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists in helping us see the reality of the life-threatening perils we face, as we pray your message awakens us to the importance of acting faster and with ever more focus to preserve lives on our planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has long urged world leaders toward the most necessary actions to avert planetary disasters, as in an October 2009 speech addressing government magistrates and judges in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: At this most urgent time for the planet, I beseech your honorable graces to please help your country and our world spare lives from the impending global warming calamity. If you don’t, there will be too massive a catastrophe, too immense a suffering upon people, families, the children, that our conscience might never be able to bear it.

We eliminate most of the human-made greenhouse gases by simply adopting the animal-free vegan organic lifestyle. This also leads to considerable financial savings for world governments.

We cannot wait for the sustainable energy and green technology to be available and used by everyone. It would be too late. We must become vegan to save our planet.

The US-based environmental group, Clean Air Task Force (CATF) has been researching ways to decrease both air pollution and global warming, by focusing primarily on the so-called “basket” of shorter-lived climate forcers.

According to CATF scientist Dr. Ellen Baum, reducing substances like black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and methane would be more effective in quickly cooling the planet than prioritizing carbon dioxide mitigation.

Dr. Ellen Baum – Researcher, Clean Air Task Force, USA; Vegetarian (F): You would get both the air quality benefit and you’d get a much faster climate response from reductions than you would get by being able to cut carbon dioxide. And we don’t seem to be cutting carbon dioxide either.

VOICE: In particular, Dr. Baum explained why a focus on reducing human-caused methane is urgently needed. Whereas carbon dioxide can take hundreds or even thousands of years to stop heating the atmosphere, methane dissipates in a small fraction of that time.

Dr. Ellen Baum (F): Methane has a much shorter lifetime than CO2, and therefore it is something we think needs immediate attention. It’s also a precursor to tropospheric ozone, and probably one of the best ways to reduce the part of tropospheric ozone that has the most climate impact.

VOICE: Among all global human sources of methane, the livestock industry is by far the largest at 37%, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and even more in certain countries.

Dr. Baum, a vegetarian herself, explained the implications of removing this major source of planetary warming.

Dr. Ellen Baum (F): If we ate no meat, it would have a beneficial effect on the climate in all sorts of ways. You would have a much smaller population of ruminant livestock, so you wouldn’t have methane emissions.

You wouldn’t have to have the conversion of land to grazing land so that you would have beef operations. So, I don’t have any question if the whole population worldwide, 7 billion people stopped eating meat, it would make a difference.

VOICE: Dr. Baum and Clean Air Task Force, we appreciate your efforts in calling attention to these atmospheric agents that account significantly toward global warming. May we all do our part to curb such harmful effects through the simple and humane change to meat-free fare.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently advocated a focus on eliminating short-lived greenhouse gases like methane, as during an interview published in the December 16, 2009 edition of The Irish Dog Journal.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Methane, the potent, greenhouse gas whose largest human-created source is the livestock industry, traps a hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

Until now most studies used the fact that methane is 23 times more heat trapping than CO2, over 100 years, which gives a less accurate picture about methane in its actual life span.

Therefore, the powerful methane is actually a greater cause of the warming than previously estimated. The good news is that methane dissipates from the atmosphere in approximately 12 years, whereas it takes carbon dioxide thousands of years to disappear.

So, if we want to make a rapid, effective difference now, we must stop the methane generation at its largest, original source: that is, the livestock industry.

Avian populations, once abundant in the nation, have been dwindling due to urbanization and use of pesticides. Moreover, with this year bringing India’s hottest March and April in a century, with May temperatures often exceeding 45 degrees Celsius, an alarming number of birds have been succumbing to heatstroke.

In the city of Delhi alone, where vultures, doves and sparrows are already facing extinction, some 300 birds have been treated daily for sunstroke, at least 70 of whom are seen each day at the long-established Charity Birds Hospital.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Uttar Pradesh, the state forest department reported the tragic finding of 150 peacocks who perished in the summer heat. Officials there are now working to refill parched water bodies and implement other local preventive measures.

Our earnest thanks, Charity Birds Hospital and all officials, organizations, and personnel working to save avian co-inhabitants imperiled by the intense heat.

With our prayers for their revival to flourishing health, let us swiftly join in meaningful actions to restore the Earth’s balance for the benefit of all beings. As part of her tireless efforts to ensure our planetary welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the perilous situation of our animal co-inhabitants, as in this August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Our animal friends are suffering terribly due to the effects of global warming. Many of the animals are dying or at the brink of extinction or already gone due to unbearable temperatures or they are being forced out of their habitats.

Birds of all kinds in every corner of the globe are also imperiled. According to the World Wildlife Fund, some bird populations declined by up to 90%. Some already disappeared.

With the expected 2-degree C temperature rise, bird extinction rates could reach 38% in Europe, and 72% in Northeast Australia. We have lost so many innocents already.

But the animals know exactly what is happening without a word. They know that the solution lies not so much in words but in daily actions, and the essential change that will be the most restorative for our world is to be vegan.

June 18, 2010

The US-based environmental group, Clean Air Task Force (CATF) has been researching ways to decrease both air pollution and global warming, by focusing primarily on the so-called “basket” of shorter-lived climate forcers.

According to CATF scientist Dr. Ellen Baum, reducing substances like black carbon, tropospheric ozone, and methane would be more effective in quickly cooling the planet than prioritizing carbon dioxide mitigation.

Dr. Ellen Baum – Researcher, Clean Air Task Force, USA; Vegetarian (F): You would get both the air quality benefit and you’d get a much faster climate response from reductions than you would get by being able to cut carbon dioxide. And we don’t seem to be cutting carbon dioxide either.

VOICE: In particular, Dr. Baum explained why a focus on reducing human-caused methane is urgently needed. Whereas carbon dioxide can take hundreds or even thousands of years to stop heating the atmosphere, methane dissipates in a small fraction of that time.

Dr. Ellen Baum (F): Methane has a much shorter lifetime than CO2, and therefore it is something we think needs immediate attention. It’s also a precursor to tropospheric ozone, and probably one of the best ways to reduce the part of tropospheric ozone that has the most climate impact.

VOICE: Among all global human sources of methane, the livestock industry is by far the largest at 37%, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and even more in certain countries.

Dr. Baum, a vegetarian herself, explained the implications of removing this major source of planetary warming.

Dr. Ellen Baum (F): If we ate no meat, it would have a beneficial effect on the climate in all sorts of ways. You would have a much smaller population of ruminant livestock, so you wouldn’t have methane emissions.

You wouldn’t have to have the conversion of land to grazing land so that you would have beef operations. So, I don’t have any question if the whole population worldwide, 7 billion people stopped eating meat, it would make a difference.

VOICE: Dr. Baum and Clean Air Task Force, we appreciate your efforts in calling attention to these atmospheric agents that account significantly toward global warming. May we all do our part to curb such harmful effects through the simple and humane change to meat-free fare.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently advocated a focus on eliminating short-lived greenhouse gases like methane, as during an interview published in the December 16, 2009 edition of The Irish Dog Journal.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Methane, the potent, greenhouse gas whose largest human-created source is the livestock industry, traps a hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

Until now most studies used the fact that methane is 23 times more heat trapping than CO2, over 100 years, which gives a less accurate picture about methane in its actual life span.

Therefore, the powerful methane is actually a greater cause of the warming than previously estimated. The good news is that methane dissipates from the atmosphere in approximately 12 years, whereas it takes carbon dioxide thousands of years to disappear.

So, if we want to make a rapid, effective difference now, we must stop the methane generation at its largest, original source: that is, the livestock industry.

Avian populations, once abundant in the nation, have been dwindling due to urbanization and use of pesticides. Moreover, with this year bringing India’s hottest March and April in a century, with May temperatures often exceeding 45 degrees Celsius, an alarming number of birds have been succumbing to heatstroke.

In the city of Delhi alone, where vultures, doves and sparrows are already facing extinction, some 300 birds have been treated daily for sunstroke, at least 70 of whom are seen each day at the long-established Charity Birds Hospital.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Uttar Pradesh, the state forest department reported the tragic finding of 150 peacocks who perished in the summer heat. Officials there are now working to refill parched water bodies and implement other local preventive measures.

Our earnest thanks, Charity Birds Hospital and all officials, organizations, and personnel working to save avian co-inhabitants imperiled by the intense heat.

With our prayers for their revival to flourishing health, let us swiftly join in meaningful actions to restore the Earth’s balance for the benefit of all beings. As part of her tireless efforts to ensure our planetary welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai has often addressed the perilous situation of our animal co-inhabitants, as in this August 2009 videoconference in Thailand.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Our animal friends are suffering terribly due to the effects of global warming. Many of the animals are dying or at the brink of extinction or already gone due to unbearable temperatures or they are being forced out of their habitats.

Birds of all kinds in every corner of the globe are also imperiled. According to the World Wildlife Fund, some bird populations declined by up to 90%. Some already disappeared.

With the expected 2-degree C temperature rise, bird extinction rates could reach 38% in Europe, and 72% in Northeast Australia. We have lost so many innocents already.

But the animals know exactly what is happening without a word. They know that the solution lies not so much in words but in daily actions, and the essential change that will be the most restorative for our world is to be vegan.

June 16, 2010

From May 31 to June 11, approximately 4,500 participants met in subsidiary groups of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, for further discussions leading up to the major December conference in Cancun, Mexico. Supreme Master Television’s correspondent brought this report from Bonn, Germany.

German correspondent (M): We're here in Bonn, Germany, where delegates of more than 180 countries convened for a new round of climate change talks. Focuses included emissions reduction commitments of industrialized countries, building the capacity of developing countries to measure emissions from deforestation, and others.

VOICE: While commending the progress made in initial sessions, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer highlighted the necessity of continuing intense negotiation efforts.

Yvo de Boer - UNFCCC Executive Secretary (M): The fact remains that industrialized country pledges fall well short of that minus 25-40% range the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) says gives us a 50% chance to keep global temperature increase below two degrees.

Take all current pledges and plans from all countries, and we still won’t stop emissions growing in the next 10 years.

Correspondent (M): Members of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association also joined to advocate the fastest, most effective measure to stop global warming – an organic vegan diet and policy.

Daniela Tarizzo – Program Officer, UN Convention to Combat Desertification; Vegan (F): What you are doing is providing true information. Going vegan is definitely one of the solutions.

Charles Hleronyml – Scientific adviser, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (M): By adopting a vegetarian regime, you can contribute to help the planet.

Dr. Charles McNeill – Senior environment policy advisor, United Nation Development Program; Vegan (M): I am a vegan, and I’ve been very impressed by the impact on my personal health, but also perhaps even more importantly is the impact of a vegan diet on the planet.

Massimo Pieri – Physicist; Meatfree advocate (M): I dream of a world where eating animals is finished. Because we can obtain the same protein, or same energy we need from vegetables.

Killing animals is a very, very heavy responsibility, and I think there will be a world that we stop all that.

Correspondent (M): This is Supreme Master Television reporting from Bonn, Germany.

VOICE: We thank all the delegates and media involved in this summit for your concerted efforts to save our planet. Blessed be such committed endeavors in bringing meaningful outcomes for all nations, especially the much-needed organic vegan food policy.

Delegates: Be veg, go green, save the planet!

VOICE: Supreme Master Ching Hai has long urged government leadership to halt livestock emissions as the best way to cool the planet, as in this March 2009 videoconference in Mexico.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: I suggest all world leaders and governments to please promote the animal-free lifestyle and quick so that we can save our planet. We have not too much time left. This is no longer even about politics.

It’s about the survival of ourselves and our children. If all governments encourage people toward the healthy, animal-free diet, the planet could be saved in no time. The government must make a priority, saving the planet, organic vegan farming, subsidize.

The International Polar Year Scientific Conference, held from June 8 to 12 in Oslo, brought together over 2,000 scientists from 70 countries to share their findings.

Jointly organized by the Research Council of Norway, International Polar Year research campaign, World Meteorological Organization, and others, the forum sought to advance understanding of rapid changes observed in the polar regions due to climate change.

At the opening ceremony, His Royal Highness the Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon commended the cooperative endeavors of the participating scientists.

His Royal Highness the Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon (M): The International Polar Year has been about people joining forces and working together to solve a task that could not have been solved by any of them alone. You should all be proud of being part of this effort.

VOICE: Among the government dignitaries in attendance was Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland, who noted the significance of studying the two regions that are highly indicative of global warming.

Tora Aasland - Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education (F): The timing of the International Polar Year, both fortunately and sadly at the same time, has been very good. Climate change is a growing threat and a challenge we must see in a global perspective.

VOICE: Also present was His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco, whose foundation of the same name committed to further valuable polar research. As new data from rapidly changing polar regions have so many implications, ranging from sea level rise to damaged ecosystems, participants sensed the urgency of communicating their findings.

Prof. Steven Chown – South African Antarctic scientist, Martha T. Muse Prize laureate (M): In many of the areas that I’ve worked, we see huge changes in glaciers, we see changes in temperature, we see changes in biodiversity. The situation is critical, and we need to do something about it now; we can’t delay.

VOICE: According to Dr. Steven Chown, who was honored during the meeting with the Marth T. Muse Prize for his work in Antarctica, individuals' lifestyle changes also play a vital role in the solution.

Prof. Steven Chown (M): We know that agricultural emissions through the growing of cattle and other livestock are quite substantial. So I think we need to think as individuals about how our lifestyles affect the planet we have.

VOICE: Our appreciation all concerned and dedicated polar scientists for your participation in this meeting. Let us heed your messages to join now and act sustainably to save the vital polar regions and our planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often reminded of the need to prevent the danger of warming gases especially in the polar regions, as during an interview with The House Magazine for the September 2009 edition.

Like melting of the Arctic sea ice which causes oceans to absorb more sunlight and speeds up melting; and the melting of permafrost which in turn releases toxic methane gas, resulting in more warming of the atmosphere.

We can’t stop the climate change with all this methane heating our planet and in turn heating the Arctic, yes? Heating the South and North Poles and in turn also heating the permafrost.

All the methane from the animals heats the ice, the ice melts and the permafrost is exposed and melts as well. All this methane comes out together with the animals’ methane. We can’t be saved if we still continue with animals’ raising practice.

Following a recent episode of illegal mining in Zamfara state, the country’s Ministry of Health stated that over 160 people have died thus far from lead poisoning, with 355 others diagnosed as affected.

The Nigerian government requested the help of such groups as the World Health Organization (WHO), Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Testing by the CDC has revealed extremely high blood levels of lead in thousands of adults and children in the contaminated region. The toxic effects of the lead have left many survivors with afflictions such as blindness, deafness, or loss of all motor skills.

Agency spokesperson Vivi Abrams said, “The scope of the poisoning is unprecedented in CDC's work with lead poisoning worldwide.” The international health agencies are now urgently training local residents in effective clean-up and containment procedures, hoping to stop the toxic substance from spreading with seasonal heavy rains expected in the coming month. Our deep thankfulness, Nigerian government and all the helping organizations working to alleviate the suffering of innocent villagers.

We join in sadness for the lives lost and pray for the comfort and recovery of the afflicted as we strive to eliminate such tragedies through our more conscious care of the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has long called on humanity to act with greater regard for the ecosphere, for the sake of both the environment and all life on Earth, as during a July 2008 videoconference in Formosa.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Everyone knows by now that protecting the environment, protecting the animals, are actually protecting ourselves. So we must protect the environment. If the environments are friendly and conducive to a healthy lifestyle, then everything else will be fine.

We should have more rules, more guidelines, to protect our natural habitats. Because sometimes we overlook the long run effect. We just see the immediate benefit or gain and we forget that in the long run, if we carelessly build or damage or interfere with nature, then the consequence is very, very detrimental to ourselves and to the planet, just like what we are facing right now.

June 14, 2010

UK scientists from Aberystwyth University in Wales have been measuring the rapidly thinning ice cap in Greenland, containing the world’s second largest ice sheet after Antarctica.

Beginning a month-long camping expedition on the ice sheet itself, Dr. Alun Hubbard’s team found summertime melting patterns six weeks earlier than normal. In addition, Dr. Ian Bartholomew of Edinburgh University in Scotland, UK recently discovered summer glacial ice in Greenland sliding at a 220% faster rate toward the sea than in the winter, which is a much larger variability than previously measured.

Scientists note with increasing concern the devastating consequences that would occur if the entire ice sheet melted completely. Norwegian ice expert Mr. Veli Albert Kallio of the Frozen Isthmuses' Protection Campaign of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans explained.

Veli Albert Kallio – Frozen Isthmuses Protection Campaign of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans (M): The sea level rise, first of all, would be about between 7 and 10 meters. As the ice falls into the sea, it displaces its own weight of water and that raises the sea level. But the most dangerous thing is not necessarily at all the sea level rise.

VOICE: According to Mr. Kallio, as large pieces of Greenland’s ice are pushed into the sea, the ocean could become significantly cooled, affecting global climates and threatening vital needs such as food supplies.

Veli Albert Kallio (M): The second aspect is the climatic cooling, which is far more serious perhaps than the sea level rise, because the world food security is threatened by it.

It would be years of no agricultural production, and electricity in houses going out as the power stations are often located on the seaside. It could happen virtually tomorrow, and then we would suddenly find out that our society and way of life would be dramatically crippled by this event.

VOICE: Yet another potential disaster would result from underground Earth movements due to ice melt that removes the glaciers’ massive, suppressing weight. Scientists, who have already observed a 2.5-centimeter lifting of coastal land annually in Greenland, which they say is increasing, also fear increased volcanic eruptions.

Veli Albert Kallio (M): The ground water, when it goes to very deep levels on the ground, it is dissolved as hydrogen and oxygen gas in magma. And when the pressure is reduced, this dissolved gas starts bubbling, and it raises the magma to the surface, raises the pressure and spouts it out as a volcano.

VOICE: As volcanoes erupt, the magma causes even more ice to melt, a cycle that could lead to the complete disappearance of the Greenland ice sheet.

Veli Albert Kallio (M): When the ice melting becomes more severe, the volcanic eruptions become more frequent. So there’s a danger of a runaway event and tipping point that it becomes contagious.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often reminded that the key to preventing calamitous ice melt is to counter the main source of global warming, as in this November 2009 videoconference in Washington, DC, USA.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Greenland is shedding 85 million tons of icebergs each day due to warming, and at a rate that is increasing by 7 percent each year. And if all of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt – meaning the ice – then the sea levels could rise to as much as 70 meters, which would be deadly or disastrous to most lives on Earth.

To solve this, we do need to move quickly, and of course we know what to do, right? Yes? Be vegan.

NASA announced that methane actually contributes much more to global warming than previously understood and it traps 100 times the atmospheric heat over 20 years. And the largest source of methane is? You know - livestock.

There is an advantage of time here, because one aspect of methane is that it dissipates in around 12 year’s time, whereas carbon dioxide, CO2, stays in the atmosphere for up to thousands of years. So, we remove the livestock-generated methane, and the planet cools fast!

A seminar was recently held in Gwangju, South Korea inviting government officials and educators to consider implementing a vegan policy in schools. It was organized by a coalition of civil groups called Hope Group Meal Alliance for a Green World, who share the goal for creating healthier low-carbon school meals for children.

Politicians on stage (M): I will adopt a vegetarian diet one day a week.

VOICE: Invited South Korean parliament members and others signed a document pledging to be veg themselves while formally promoting the lifestyle.

Jang Hui-Gook – Gwangju City Superintendent of Education Candidate (M): I have pledged to work to provide once-a-week vegetarian school meals, and first-and-foremost to provide menus in schools that give students a choice.

VOICE: In addition to lectures given on the relationship between climate change and diet, presentations were given by Dr. Wei Jong-Bi from Formosa’s (Taiwan) National Chang Hua University on the successful precedents in Formosa’s vegan school meal policies; and Dr. Hwang Seong-Soo, a South Korean vegan neurosurgeon who has helped patients reverse chronic disease by adopting animal-free diets.

Hwang Seong-Soo, MD – Neurosurgeon, Daegu Medical Center; Vegan (M): Humans must not eat meat, fish, egg, or milk. These shouldn’t just be reduced, they must not be eaten at all.

Kim Jae-Gyun – South Korean National Assembly Member (M): For health and for reducing global warming, it’s very important to have a plant-based diet rather than meat eating.

VOICE: Outside the Chonnam National University venue, college students urged the public to pledge to try veg while offering free tasty veg hamburgers. Our Association members were also invited to cook free hot vegan meals on site.

Citizen tasting (M): It’s really tasty!

Child reading veg pledge card (F): “I will be veg once a week to save the Earth suffering from global warming and to save my health.”

VOICE: Our appreciation honorable South Korean legislators, groups and citizens who are determined to ensure both health and a sustainable future for our children. May all responsible schools and governments adopt the win-win solution of adopting plant-based fare.

Group: Be veg, go green, save the planet!

In a September 2009 videoconference in South Korea, Supreme Master Ching Hai encouraged educators and dignitaries toward the Earth-saving organic vegan diet to save the planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You have taken the first step by declaring to be organic vegan one day a week.

I thank you for that again. And now with this same courageous spirit, please be veg every day of the week, or just another six days.

That is very simple. Because organic vegan is the only way we can save the planet. There’s nothing else, no other green power can protect us in this crucial moment of danger.

Please wake up and wake everybody else up before our house is burned down. Together we will win, together we will save this planet.

June 13, 2010

As the worst drought in a century plagued more than 25 million residents in the southwestern province of Yunnan, experts stated that the severe conditions have been intensified by climate change, which has decreased the rains and increased extreme weather events in the province since the 1960s.

Environmental scientist Yang Yong of the Hengduan Mountain Research Center stated, “The ecological system and the environment have accumulated so many problems in so many years, [after] decades of deforestation [and] unplanned farming.”

Many rural families have faced food shortages as the drought, which began in Fall 2009, took its toll on 8 million hectares of arable land and the crops that are the region’s only source of sustenance.

Chinese Correspondent (F): You can see behind me this long irrigation ditch. It could irrigate 1,000 mu of farm land, but the water in the reservoir has completely gone dry and cannot provide any water. You can see that this ditch has gone dry completely. It can’t offer a tiny drop of irrigation water.

Chinese Correspondent (F): Do you have enough drinking water?

Villager (M): We can barely survive. Don’t you see people fighting for drinking water?

Drought-afflicted farmer, harvesting broad beans (M): Our harvest over the last few years is much better than this. It’s impossible to harvest anything now. It’s already dry.

Drought-afflicted farmer 2 (F): We are struggling; we don’t have enough working hands. In total we have 300 families. We all harvest nothing this year. Only the stalks are left. If the wind is big, the leaves will fly away.

VOICE: In the spring of 2010, the provincial Department of Land and Resources began a water excavation project supported by China's Ministry of Land and Resources, which has successfully dug 1,791 wells to supply over 2 million residents as of May 24. However, Vice Director of the Department of Land and Resources Li Lianju cautioned that this project can provide only a temporary solution.

In early June, some relief from the intense conditions also arrived as Yunnan welcomed the blessing of rains that helped bring some much-needed moisture to crops.

We thank the Chinese officials and personnel working to ease the acute drought situation, as we pray for plentiful rain and the resilience of the afflicted. Let us all meanwhile join in alleviating such extreme conditions through our sustainable care for the environment.

Ever-concerned for humanity’s welfare, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed such tolls of global warming during a September 2009 videoconference in Peru, while suggesting the most effective actions to preserve life and restore our Earth.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Some countries and communities have to cope with worsened drought situations. There is not enough water to raise crops or even to drink. Their rivers and lakes are drying up or completely gone.

We can see everywhere reflections of a planet in trouble, with monsoons and flooding in one location and people losing their harvests and drinking water to drought in another.

One way that our world can be preserved and stabilized is through everyone’s change to a compassionate lifestyle, choosing organic vegan diet, which not only eliminates methane and other toxic, heat-trapping greenhouse gases emissions from the livestock industry, but the organic part takes care of harmful fertilizer chemicals and allows the soil to absorb a huge amount of atmospheric CO2.

In Rome, Italy, environmental activists display a temporary hotel constructed entirely from trash gathered along beaches to raise public awareness regarding the extent of pollution on European coastlines.

Research by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shown that the planet is home to rocks rich in carbonate minerals, which form in the presence of water. Dr. Richard Morris from the Johnson Space Center in Houston led the study, which was based on a new analysis of data from NASA’s Exploration Rover.

Previous explorations had already indicated the presence of carbonate minerals, but the most recent analysis showed a full 25% carbonate by weight, or 10 times higher than what was known before.

Dr Morris stated, “It looks like Mars had a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, so there was some kind of greenhouse effect. The atmosphere now is very thin, - it could have blown into space or it could have interacted with water and is now present in the rocks.”

Confirming evidence of water on Mars helps scientists answer a larger question about the planet’s ability to host life.

The European Space Agency will be seeking further clues in its upcoming ExoMars mission, which plans to send a rover vehicle in 2018.

The probe will be equipped with special instruments that can detect organic molecules as well as microscopic fossil formations of living beings.

Dr. Morris, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency scientists, this is indeed fascinating! We look forward to more understanding of the mysteries of our planetary neighbor, which also provide insights into life on Earth.

In an October 2009 videoconference in Hong Kong, Supreme Master Ching Hai shared further thoughts about the past greenhouse gas crisis on Mars while reminding of the urgent need for humanity to take action in protecting our planetary home.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: According to planetary scientists, Mars and Venus were probably like planet Earth at an earlier time; they had a comfortable atmosphere, warmer temperatures, oceans and lots of water.

There is evidence that both of them experienced extreme climate changes. Thus today we see that Mars’ surface looks like there had been oceans, mountains, and rivers carved into them, even though there is hardly any living atmosphere left.

I have been able to contact the people in Mars; their ancestors were the survivors of the global warming catastrophe. They kindly gave us permission to share their sad past experience that it was their meat diet, their other unpleasant habits, their livestock production that emitted too much hot and poisonous gas, which triggered the release of other greenhouse gases from huge stores under the soil and ocean.

So tragically, the vast majority of people on Mars perished within a short time, along with the animals and plant life.

Our planet is also facing a similar fate very soon. If we all become vegan and live a virtuous, compassionate life, it won’t happen.

Our planet will not follow this fate of Mars and Venus and instead, will be saved and thriving in every corner.

June 10, 2010

A May 2010 report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicates that the world’s oceans have warmed steadily and significantly between 1993 and 2008.

The rate of warming was found to be slightly faster than previous estimates in the 4th Assessment Report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Moreover, as the warm seawater expands, sea levels have also been rising. Team leader Dr. John Lyman collaborated with researchers from the US National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), the Met Office Hadley Center in the United Kingdom, the University of Hamburg in Germany, and the Meteorological Research Institute in Japan, to conduct nine separate evaluations of the upper 700 meters of the ocean.

The new findings on ocean warming presented strong confirmation of planetary climate change, especially with temperature data from water being more stable than land.

Peter Challenor of the UK’s National Oceanography Center affirmed the findings of the comprehensive data analysis as he stated, “This study … shows the warming is real.”

Dr. Lyman and fellow international scientists, we appreciate your detailed work in this confirming study of global warming. May we all act now while we can to protect the Earth and halt climate change. Based on this and other similar information, Supreme Master Ching Hai has long been urging for the most efficient planet-cooling solution, as during an interview published in the July 12, 2009 edition of the Irish Sunday Independent.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: A group of scientists from the International Alliance of Research Universities just published new findings saying that the rate of sea level rise and oceanic warming are both substantially higher than what the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, estimated just a couple of years ago.

You see, This report now forecasts ocean level to rise one meter by the end of the century, a nearly 70% increase over what the IPCC previously projected.

Of course, they estimate a little bit conservatively, you know? Yes. worrying maybe to alarm the public or just to be cautious.

It is better we concentrate on the solution to save the Earth. We can still do it. We can still do it. If everyone becomes part of the solution, which is the organic life-saving vegan diet, it's so simple really, it's so simple.

It's no sacrifice, it's even better for health, better for everything! It's so easy. Organic vegan diet, that's all we need to do, for the time being. And any other green technology, we can slowly develop.

According to Puerto Rican ecology and natural resources professor Dr. Ivette Perfecto from the University of Michigan， farmers could benefit while helping to save the planet from turning to organic farming and agroecology, or working along nature’s principles to produce food.

In her research, Dr. Perfecto observed that large crop agricultural landscapes, such as coffee farms in Costa Rica, are able to host diverse and healthy wildlife. In contrast, isolated patches of rainforest or nature preserves are not able to sustain even the reduced number of species living there.

Her studies concluded that small-scale farmers and their organic or agroecological methods, the latter of which minimize the use of fertilizers and do not use pesticides, could therefore protect biodiversity – with farmers benefiting from greater yields.

She stated, "A variety of studies have shown convincingly that organic agriculture is at least as productive as industrial agriculture， and according to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data, the smaller the farm the more productivity.

In other words， if you want to increase production the most efficient way to do so is to break up the mega farms, distribute the land to small-scale farmers and provide training in agroecology." Dr. Perfecto recently co-authored a book on the solution titled, "Nature’s Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty" in which she cites the rapid deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in emphasizing the need to shift toward small-scale organic farming.

According to related research by Dr. Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, the Amazon is being cleared both by cattle ranching and soybean farming, with soybean crops for cattle feed causing both crop fields and grazing lands to extend even deeper into the forest.

Dr. Brown states that the key to protecting the rainforest’s biodiversity is to decrease consumers’ demand for meat products and their associated soy crops.

Our appreciation, Dr. Perfecto, for these insights into a more efficient and sustainable agriculture sector, as we thank Dr. Brown for addressing the issue’s root cause.

Let us step in awareness to nourish the world through the most eco-conscious and plentiful method of organic vegan farming. As in an interview published in the September 2009 edition of The House Magazine, Supreme Master Ching Hai has frequently highlighted the transformation of our agricultural system that would return balance to our imperiled planet.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: There are so many benefits from organic vegan farming as well as many benefiting parties. First, for the farmers, organic vegan farming is productive, saving 37% more energy and even more water than conventional farming methods.

Wildlife and ecosystems also win. According to the largest study done on organic farming in the UK compared to conventional farms, organic farms contained 85% more plant species, with 71% taller and thicker hedges, and a healthy return of native animals across the species.

Organic soil matter also absorbs CO2 so effectively that the Rodale Institute calls organic vegan farming a powerful strategy to reduce global warming, by up to 40% of all CO2 emissions now in the atmosphere.

The government can support this organic vegan farming through subsidies. They can also redirect the funds away from the meat industry and instead toward encouraging citizens to plant, to buy and to choose organic vegan food. And when they do, we will soon have a lot of healthy, happy, productive people, a restored green environment, and minimum climate mitigation costs – something all governments can look forward to and gain the enthusiastic support of all citizens.